No.1, January 2013. The series is compiled by Campus Compact and the Community College National Center for Community Engagement.
C2C Model Development: Perspectives of a Campus Compact
State Affiliate
Courtney Kuntz
Florida Campus Compact
AbstractAs college access and success are high priorities for colleges throughout the country, innovative initiatives are emerging to create conditions for success.
Developmental education presents a unique challenge. Often, developmental students fall into high-risk categories including low-income, nontraditional, first-generation college students with personal, academic, financial, and social challenges to graduating. Community-engaged learning and peer advocacy are promising approaches to help address the diverse needs of this student population. Connect2Complete utilizes both of these strategies. Three colleges in Florida have joined in this initiative with their state affiliate, Florida Campus Compact. This paper will outline the model from a statewide perspective and address challenges and potential solutions for program implementation across diverse institutions.
Introduction
While Florida Campus Compact maintains significant reach across institutions and disciplines, the launch of Connect2Complete (C2C) in Florida represents its first
initiative dedicated to addressing the specific needs of developmental education students. Considering the positive outcomes of community-engaged learning and the widespread prevalence of developmental education, it seems a natural fit to expand the benefits of service-learning to this student population. The need is great. The graduation rate for full-time, First-Time-in-College (FTIC), associate degree-seeking students at Florida’s 28 public two-year colleges is only 25.6% within 4 years of entry (Complete College America, 2011). Over half of all Florida students entering postsecondary education require remediation and only 16.8% of full-time associate degree-seeking developmental students will graduate within 4 years (Complete College America, 2011). Though
graduation rates for remedial and non-remedial students increase when time to degree is extended to six years and when transfer students are included, there is clearly room for improvement. Colleges seek innovative solutions while facing rapid increases in enrollment and significant budget shortfalls. C2C seeks to leverage community engagement in a new model for student success.
Students who test into developmental education courses often encounter a wide range of challenges. First, they are required to enroll in additional coursework that often does not count for college credit or for graduation. From the start, these students know that it may take additional time and finances for them to graduate. They can also face the stigma of being a “developmental education” or “remedial” student by their peers, faculty and staff. According to Tinto (2010), academically under-prepared students already doubt their ability to succeed in college. The awareness of this additional “status” may
Florida Campus Compact’s Leadership
The overarching vision of the Florida C2C program is to support institutional efforts at retention that utilize peer-to-peer advocacy, student social capital, leadership development, and community engagement. Florida C2C partners will achieve this vision by attaining four key objectives:
1. Develop and test the Connect2Complete model through pilot projects at three communitycolleges.
2. Support Campus Compact by using pilot project data to codify a peer-to-peer model.
3. Institutionalize the Connect2Complete model on pilot campuses.
4. Support widespread adoption and lasting impact beyond the pilot phase.
The approach of Campus Compact has been to support the adoption of models that reflect the unique campus environments of its sub-grantees. This grassroots approach has resulted in extensive innovation by the campuses. As effective practices emerge,
replicable models will be developed that can be adapted and adopted to each subsequent campus.
Developmental Education in Florida
On a general level, student success in college is dependent upon a wide variety of factors. Students face academic challenges as well as personal, financial, and social obstacles (Tinto, 2010). Vincent Tinto (2010) identifies the following conditions for promoting student retention: acculturation to the academic environment, support services, social support, financial support, sense of belonging, and academic support and
expectations. This broad set of predictors may be impacted by all departments, academic and non-academic (Kuh et al. 2005).
Keeping in mind these general indicators of student success, creating conditions of success for students with academic barriers to postsecondary education is important. “Developmental education” or “remediation” refers to pre-college courses or curriculum designed to raise students’ skills to college level. Upon enrollment at a community college in Florida, students take the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT), which assesses their college readiness in math, reading and writing. The PERT
assessment determines whether students are prepared to enroll in college level courses or if they must undergo remediation. Remediation may have multiple levels which can add up to an additional five semesters before students are even able to take courses toward their degree (Bailey & Cho, 2010). Developmental education often has the consequences of increasing time to a degree while also increasing the likelihood of a student becoming discouraged by the daunting task of completing remediation and the high financial costs associated with additional classes.
Students placing into developmental education courses are often from historically underrepresented low-income, “First-Time-In-College”, first generation, nontraditional and/or minority student populations. According to the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Governmental Accountability (OPPAGA), traditional instructional methods may not be as effective with this particular student population. “National research indicates that students needing remediation are less likely than other students to have critical thinking and study skills and often do not comprehend academic material delivered using
traditional instructional methods” (OPPAGA, 2007). As a result, developmental education programs often seek to provide alternative approaches to education delivery and support.
Community colleges enroll over a third of all postsecondary students (Rutschow & Schneider (2011). In Florida, over half (55%) of students entering postsecondary education require some remediation, whether in mathematics, reading, and/or writing (OPPAGA, 2007). Open enrollment community colleges almost exclusively serve this population, enrolling 94% of the students needing remediation (OPPAGA, 2007). At the same time, from 2006 to 2011, Florida colleges increased in enrollment by 34%, adding 96,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. The challenge of educating this increased student population has been compounded by a reduction of 24% per FTE of in-state funding (Alexander, 2011). While developmental education programs aim to prepare these students for college level coursework by addressing personal, academic, and financial obstacles, slightly more than half (59.8%) actually complete remediation, with only 22.3% completing remediation and associated college level courses in two years (Complete College America, 2011).
Connect2Complete
Connect2Complete (C2C) is a program launched by Campus Compact with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This initiative utilizes peer-to-peer advocacy and community engagement as a retention strategy for developmental
education students at community colleges. Florida was selected as one of six eligible states to be awarded grant funds. The specific model on each campus is unique but the foundational elements are the same. Successful community college students work with first year, low-income students requiring preparatory coursework to assist them with overcoming the many personal and academic barriers to graduation. Together with
faculty members, these students develop, plan, and implement community-engaged learning opportunities aimed at building community, leadership, learning, and a sense of belonging for all participants. Each campus has adopted a unique approach reflecting its own campus culture, and the campuses are joined in a statewide learning community through their Campus Compact affiliate.
Role of the Peer Advocate
Research indicates that student engagement inside and outside the classroom is important. Simply making support services available to students is not sufficient for impact (Kuh, Buckley, & Hayek, 2007). Peer Advocates provide a support system and build communities for C2C students, the high-risk students in developmental education with whom they work. In partnership with faculty and staff on campuses, Peer Advocates address personal, social, and academic needs of students in unfamiliar territory. They help to bridge the curricular and co-curricular experience. They contribute to
relationships between faculty members and student services to ensure that referrals for resources are made in a timely manner and that all parties will engage with students when necessary. The norms and behaviors developed in these communities have the potential to impact student success, especially for those who are not acculturated to college.
Active and collaborative learning, use of technology and experiential learning can provide an academic environment that is more stimulating, empowering, and exciting for developmental education students (Kuh et al. 2005). Despite the promising outcomes of service-learning, faculty may face challenges when utilizing this pedagogy. Peer
community-engaged learning effectively. Peer Advocates help to create communities for students both on-campus (and potentially off-campus) while supporting an instructional method that may resonate with nontraditional students.
Connect2Complete Peer Advocates are typically selected by application. Some receive scholarships, others work as Federal Work Study students, and some are incentivized by course credit in Florida. Currently, many Peer Advocates have the opportunity to serve as part-time AmeriCorps members, receiving an Education Award upon completion of 300 hours over the course of the year. Broward College, Miami Dade College, Polk State College and Brevard Community College will receive AmeriCorps positions to serve as Peer Advocates. The diverse incentives for Peer Advocates reflect the most sustainable approach proposed by the individual campuses. Tallahassee Community College, for example, was able to leverageabout 15 Federal Work Study (FWS) positions in a high impact way that benefits the whole campus community.
Broward College uses Federal Work Study positions as Lead Peer Advocates to support a tiered approach due to fewer FWS positions available on campus. Not every campus was able to secure as many FWS positions as Tallahassee Community College, but they are leveraging Federal Work Study positions in different ways.
Role of the State Affiliate
As a statewide organization comprised of colleges and universities, Florida Campus Compact (FL|CC) serves as a community builder across institutions. FL|CC works to build capacity on college and university campuses for civic and community engagement with the goal of educating students for civic and social responsibility. Its
membership is comprised of the presidents of 51 higher education institutions who provide leadership and support for the mission and vision of the coalition, including representation from 11 state universities, 20 of 28 colleges (state and community
colleges), and 20 independent colleges and universities in Florida. With the support of the administration, FL|CC’s typical role is to support the development of programs,
initiatives, and campus structures that infuse civic engagement into the educational experience.
College access and success is a priority for FL|CC and its member institutions. Many of the strategies utilized in the field of engaged scholarship, including service-learning or community-engaged service-learning, have outcomes that create the conditions for student success (Furco, 2011). The launch of Connect2Complete by Campus Compact, the national organization of which FL|CC is a state affiliate, provided Florida with an opportunity to apply these strategies to the specific needs of students enrolled in developmental education courses at community colleges.
The application process required state affiliates (in this case, Florida Campus Compact) to coordinate one cohesive application for the state that included three community colleges. FL|CC implemented a selection process by: a) disseminating a 2-page questionnaire to its 22 members from the Florida College System to identify institutions that demonstrated the need, capacity and commitment to participate; b) convening an external committee to review responses; and c) approving the committee’s recommendation of three colleges that best matched the C2C opportunity. Broward College (BC), Miami Dade College (MDC) and Tallahassee Community College (TCC) were selected based upon a number of factors including: a) strong commitment at the
highest institutional level to develop and sustain C2C activities; b) a high number and percentage of low-income students enrolled in developmental education courses; and c) proposals indicating promising approaches utilizing service-learning and peer advocacy to achieve the goals of C2C. These institutions are diverse in size, geographic region and setting. Miami Dade College is the largest postsecondary institution in the nation with over 160,000 students. Broward College and Miami Dade College serve the two most populous counties in Florida, while Tallahassee Community College serves the state capital and vast rural area in the Florida Panhandle. The colleges also are among the nation’s leading producers of African American graduates (TCC and MDC) and Hispanic graduates (MDC and BC). Florida’s statewide application was selected for funding along with Washington’s and Ohio’s.
From the beginning stages, Florida Campus Compact’s role as a convener, coordinator, and community-builder across C2C programs has been critically important. The rapid launch of C2C required full administrative support from the participating campuses. FL|CC was able to communicate strategically with high level administrators and leverage significant internal resources to the program, specifically a) the dedication of work study positions from each campus, and b) convening the appropriate college representatives in program development. Because the program officially launched in the spring semester of 2012, campuses faced many challenges to implementation requiring support and innovative problem solving. The state affiliate supports the successful implementation of C2C at each college while conducting outreach for the purposes of program sustainability, scalability, and replication.
Statewide Learning Community-Staff and Faculty
While FL|CC has a successful track record of building community and capacity for community-engaged learning staff and faculty, C2C is a unique initiative for the organization due to its focus on developmental education. Through this new approach, FL|CC has worked to build bridges between the service-learning and civic engagement staff on each campus with its developmental education faculty and administrators. These relationships were in place to a certain degree on each campus, but deepening their interaction has been vital to implementing the strategy of C2C. For all three campuses, developmental education faculty have partnered with the service-learning and civic engagement staff through program development, collaborative conference calls, and statewide sub-grantee meetings facilitated by FL|CC.
Each college developed models in consideration of a statewide approach, adapting them to reflect their own strengths and cultures. Each college developed a leadership course for Peer Advocates and utilized a group mentoring approach to maximize the retention of Peer Advocates. There are also differences between the programs. With the diversity of approaches among the three colleges, an important role for the state affiliate is to provide opportunities for the colleges and C2C staff and faculty to collaborate, share ideas and solutions, and collectively problem-solve. This will also be important as FL|CC works to expand the reach of C2C through program replication at additional campuses.
Statewide Learning Community-Students
Florida’s Connect2Complete colleges have adopted an approach toward leadership development for both Peer Advocates and C2C students. Many students in
developmental education have encountered interventions from a variety of programs and initiatives by the time they reach college. It is understood that they may be fatigued by another program labeling them as “at-risk.” By framing students’ participation as leadership development, it may be possible to increase the reach of the program while simultaneously empowering students in their educational experiences. Ultimately, the goal is that C2C students who benefit from the program will “graduate” to become Peer Advocates. While many steps have been taken toward this goal on the campus level, FL|CC is working to build a statewide community via social networking.
Florida Campus Compact administers an AmeriCorps*VISTA program that places national service members with campuses and communities to address poverty by leveraging higher education resources. VISTA members are typically college graduates who are committed to a year of service; they receive a modest stipend and Education Award upon completion. In addition, FL|CC administers a College Access and Success AmeriCorps Program in which college students serve as part-time AmeriCorps members by mentoring high-risk students in grades 6 and above. Thanks to C2C, now they may also mentor students in developmental education classes. Each year, FL|CC hosts an in-service training for these AmeriCorps members to build community and provide critical professional development and orientation to their respective programs. For the first time, FL|CC included C2C Peer Advocates in this event.
The FL|CC AmeriCorps & C2C Service Retreat was held in August 2012. While there are many differences among the program participants, the intention was to build community among those in a “term of service.” That term may be one year (for AmeriCorps members) or three semesters (for C2C Peer Advocates). Due to financial
limitations, attendance was limited to six Peer Advocates per college. Each college team was responsible for one presentation at the event which was open to all attendees. It became clear that the Peer Advocates may not have previously considered themselves in a role of service, nor were they aware of the larger community of which they were a part. Some Peer Advocates communicated a significant amount of hesitation about presenting, but afterwards felt rewarded by the experience. They also received important training regarding mentoring, developing and implementing community-engaged learning, and reflection. By attending not only as participants but as presenters, they solidified their roles as leaders and felt connected to a larger purpose.
While much of the knowledge of C2C participants may be anecdotal, some observations may provide context. Through interactions with this small group of Peer Advocates, it appears that they face many of the same challenges as the C2C students with whom they work. Many are Peer Advocates through Federal Work Study, which indicates financial need. Many lacked academic skills, confidence, and/or interpersonal skills, and have had to develop these skills in order to become effective advocates. At the Service Retreat, they made strong connections with other leaders across the state and felt valued and empowered to impact change on their own campus. Further analysis is required to evaluate the full impact of this event; nevertheless, initial observations
indicate this event may be an effective training and development strategy to fully prepare Peer Advocates for their roles.
Sustainability and Scalability
One of the primary functions of the state affiliate in the Connect2Complete program is to support its sustainability and scalability. Through its statewide
membership, FL|CC is well-suited to facilitate the adoption of the C2C model across colleges and even universities when appropriate. FL|CC’s broad reach across multiple campuses throughout the state may also appeal to funders who seek to have greater impact on the college access and success agenda.
Early in the program’s adoption, Florida Campus Compact’s C2C Project
Manager initiated outreach to campuses that originally indicated interest in participating in C2C but that were not selected. Certain colleges, specifically Polk State College and Brevard Community College, have worked to adopt components of C2C by
implementing their own variations of peer-to-peer mentoring and community-engaged learning.In order to support the work of these additional campuses, FL|CC has leveraged its existing College Access AmeriCorps Program by requesting an additional focus area in its grant priorities. As such, Volunteer Florida has approved a peer-to-peer mentoring component, thus renaming the initiative the “College Access & Success AmeriCorps Program.” Through this program, part-time AmeriCorps members are able to serve by mentoring. These AmeriCorps positions have been placed at Polk State College and Brevard Community College to provide incentives and support for their adoption of C2C. After its launch in the fall of 2012, the Connect2Complete statewide learning community will expand for the purpose of sharing resources, ideas, and innovations.
FL|CC’s network further facilitated expansion through a statewide retreat in November of 2012. This annual retreat offered professional development for
community-engaged learning staff and faculty. A pre-conference session was held for developmental education faculty interested in exploring the benefits of community-engaged learning and potentially hosting the C2C model on their campuses. FL|CC has also pursued additional opportunities for funding and expansion through partnerships with other statewide
organizations such as the Florida College Access Network and the Association of Florida Colleges (AFC). Florida Campus Compact’s C2C Project Manager presented a session entitled “Community Engagement for Student Success” at the AFC Student Development Commission Conference in May, 2012. The presentation, given to state/community college administrators and faculty members, highlighted the C2C model as a strategy for retention and generated significant interest from student success professionals at member and non-member campuses. Additional programmatic support will be provided to these groups in upcoming semesters.
Innovative approaches to address college success, specifically developmental education, continue to be a high priority for higher education administrators and college success professionals in Florida. As implementation of C2C model continues, it is imperative to continue to learn and adapt to the changing higher education environment. Community-engaged learning has a significant amount of potential to contribute to the success of developmental students. Anecdotal evidence suggests that impact is being achieved through Connect2Complete. Partnerships between developmental education and service-learning faculty and staff are proving to be beneficial to building community with developmental education students both inside and outside the classroom.
References
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